About Ted Rall

Ted Rall is the political cartoonist at ANewDomain.net, editor-in-chief of SkewedNews.net, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is the author of the biography "Trump," to be published in July 2016.

30 thoughts on “Not a Single Air Molecule”

"We’re the most captive nation of slaves that ever came along. The moral timidity of the average American is quite noticeable. Everybody’s afraid to be thought in any way different from everyone else."

Actually, we don't call the French cowards, our corporate overlords do, and quite a few useful idiots in our media and government echo that slur. Why you might even see that kind of drivel expressed on blog comment threads in 3,2,1…

I really like the quote Grouchy posted. I think it starts young in the United States. . . .I think that we learn to bury our self expression so deeply that it takes something really extraordinary to get us out of that shell. We are so afraid to be self expressed to each other that we lock our own jail cell and forget that the key is in our pocket.

Then we hate and resent anybody who is self expressed. I've realized just in the past few months how pathological Americans really are.

classic coward, rush limbaugh, appears not to look in the mirror before he lashes out at those who don't have his 'reach.' he does look in the mirror and sees someone he hates with a vengeance. but a coward being a coward, he takes the easy money and continues to bash the French and i wonder if limbaugh would have the balls to travel to France and say the things he's said, safely, here, behind his electrified fence and thug bodyguards, in person to even a French child. never happen, because limbaugh knows if he did, the last thing he'd remember…well, he wouldn't, would he?

Let's see, Rush is on the radio 3 hours a day and is hardly hiding from anyone. Love him or hate him, he's views are well know. However, if someone posted anonymously accusing someone of being a coward would be… well.. a coward.

Part of it is an act, Grouchy, but I have a colleague who's actually related to him (by both blood and marriage, because it Missourahhh!!!!), and she's a feminist from the Women's Studies program at THE Ohio State University. She says he definitely is somewhat who he claims to be on air, although in person he's not so confrontational.

Calling him "just an entertainer" is playing his game and the GOP's game. Anyone who headlines at CPAC is NOT 'just' an entertainer. You don't see John Stewart fundraising for the DNC and speaking at their major conventions, do you? Rush Limbaugh is not 'just' an entertainer, he represents the straight line GOP mentality of the past 40 years, started by Nixon.

That he loves Paris is part of the white male privilege that he would deny exists…the fact that he CAN BE that arrogant, that vicious and degrading to others, and then go enjoy the fruits of their hospitality without any shame. It is the epitome of Colonial arrogance, and to be like that plays into his persona perfectly.

Shady Pines: Rush actually doesn't give his real opinion much. He very rarely toes the line with an actual position, he is defined by who he assails more than what he stands for. Furthermore, any time he does take a position, he is usually shown to be completely wrong very shortly thereafter, and simply acts like he never took that position in the first place, or just insults and berates those who have demonstrated him to be wrong.

So no, he doesn't actually represent courage, he is the epitome of a coward. Namely for always speaking from a position of domination and ignoring the consequences of his acts, for being a fraud when it comes to his Oxycontin usage vs. the hard line he takes against others, for smoking cigars and at the same time berating people who have trouble kicking their smoking habit, as though he is not STILL impacted by nicotine through the smoking of cigars.

He's a cruel, petty, small-minded person who uses his position and power to deliberately and purposely humiliate and berate others. That is by definition a coward.

That makes him qualitatively very American. I am also American, but I choose to refer to myself as a 'neo-classical' coward, as opposed to the 'classic coward' that Grouchy alluded to.

When does Rush bash France? And I don't mean when you think Rush bashes France, or when your Statist friends told you Rush bashes France, or when you infer Rush is bashing France, or the previous poster wasn't literal in saying Rush bashes France. I mean when have you actually heard Rush bashing France?

It served Bush's goals to equate France's half-hearted resistance to the Nazi takeover in 1940 to their objections to the Iraq war in 2003. The former was embarrassing, but old news. The latter turned out to be simply good judgment.

Its been a few years and the cowardly French meme still has traction in the U.S. That made it all the more appropriate when Sarkozy scolded Obama for a lack of testicular fortitude in dealing with the financial mess.

Capitalism is a result of personal liberty. Each individual creates a product or delivers a service and is paid for that product or service. unless you are a Statist. A Statist doesn't produce anything of worth. A Statist validates his/her low income by blaming "the system"; the rich are stealing from him. The smart Statist goes to work for the government or if he is really lazy, he get's tenure in a liberal college and sucks the tax payer dry with his generous retirement plan. Either way the Statist demands from others using the force and power of the government. The capitalist and conservative gives generously to charity (twice as much as liberals) and expects the government to stay out of his way.

Actually, our country was founded on a new-feudalism system in the South and a caste system in the North. The corporate state didn't arise until after the Civil War.

Shady Pines, of course, is a liar. A statist is an advocate of statism (neither is capitalized, of course; trolls distract from their paucity of arguments with bad grammar). Statism is defined as "the principle or policy of concentrating extensive economic, political, and related controls in the state at the cost of individual liberty."

Right: that's a Republican. See also: Patriot Act.

Capitalism requires one to have capital. Our system is oligarchy, not capitalistic, and creates artificial barriers to keep wages and employment low — all at the expense of personal liberty. Shady is actually advocating fascism in his attacks against liberalism (I'm not sure he or she even knows what liberalism is), because s/he ignores salient aspects of capitalism and attacks the most potent philosophy in the U.S. arguing for a check on government power over common citizens.

I think you're also right about him being not so confrontational in person. There's archival video footage of him from the '90s (back when he actual talked to anyone who disagreed with him), and it proves that at least once he was capable of being civil, offering a positive stance and conceding his opponents' valid arguments…

My fault for not getting the sarcasm. . .I really think it's disgusting that Rush Limbaugh is not completely ridiculed as a David Duke type character. I think the reason why he has changed since the 90s is because the cognitive dissonance has got to be overwhelming. His party was in power….totally…..and he got to a point where he couldn't even feign intellectualism in defense of what was happening.

Shady Pines is completely unworthy of even acknowledging, so no comment on his tirade.

That makes him qualitatively very American. I am also American, but I choose to refer to myself as a 'neo-classical' coward, as opposed to the 'classic coward' that Grouchy alluded to.Oh I don't know Aggie, when you described Rush you did an eloquent job of describing yourself. I find you to be extremely arrogant, insulting and condescending.

I find it hard to believe that you actually spend any of your time listening to Rush. Really, be honest, how much do you listen to him?

. . . is not a properly constructed paragraph. You really want to get into a debate about grammer again?

I don’t think I can enter a debate about the niceties of English construction with a person that cannot spell “grammar.” And the quotation above was not only wrong on the definition of a paragraph, but the elipsis used replaced an improper quotation. Complete fail there.

When you are ready to exchange ideas instead of comments on grammar let me know.

Shady made comments on grammar initially, not I. Read Shady’s post. How incompetent can he possibly be? Contridicting oneself within one sentence of a previously-made fallacy is a level of idiocy that would be hilarious irl; it’s just sad on the web.

Of course, Shady has no substantive comments to make. He’s a liar and relies on obfuscation and distraction. Note he comments on Grouchy’s position without evidence, insults Grouchy, and ignores Grouchy’s own evidence. Shady is using run-of-the-mill right-wing slime tactics. If only his trolling had at least some substance: then he’d at least offer entertainment value.

"Of course, Shady has no substantive comments to make. He’s a liar and relies on obfuscation and distraction."

This is precisely why I refuse to engage in any attempted dialogue with "shady"….note that his barbs at me assume that I'd addressed him directly, which I did not. What's remarkable is that the writing style and tactics are extremely similar to a host of other quasi-anonymous posters here.

I still wonder if all this is Ted's doing, just to keep his peanut gallery lively. I conclude that it's not Ted though, because I think Ted would be a lot more entertaining about it.

And about the Patriot Act… The Patriot Act is not "Republican". It was widely supported by both parties. Barry even voted for it.

Sorry but I didn't read your diatribe to my response. I love coming here and having a spirited debate with you Statists, but I won't be bothered with postings about grammatical errors. I'm sure it was great read though!

Shady Pines, so long as we're making broad, general statements of opinion, I thought I'd take a turn:

Liberalism is a foundation and protector of personal liberty. Each individual creates a product or delivers a service and is paid fairly for that product or service. Unless you are a Conservative. A Conservative doesn't produce anything of worth. A Conservative validates his/her high income by defending "the system" (Thatcher/Reagan 'trickle-down' theory); the poor are stealing from him (through taxation for public services). The smart Conservative owns the means of production or if he is really lazy, he works the stock and commodity market with other people's money, and sucks the tax payer dry demanding bailouts to regain the capital lost through his own poor investing. Either way the Conservative demands from others using the force and power of the government. The capitalist and conservative gives generously to churches (twice as much as liberals), who will use the money for bigger buildings made of glass and $200,000 speaker-systems, while children die of curable diseases, and expects the government to reinforce his position and prestige through legislative, social and military means.

There, I fixed it. You mixed up a bit of the terminology, and I had to capitalize in a few places, but on the whole you were fairly on the mark 🙂

Wow, it can't be because our country was built on an ideology of capitalism as opposed to liberty and equality?

Actually, the USofA was founded on an ideology of liberty, albeit precarious when you look at the slavery issue. Capitalism was a term coined by Marxists much later, to qualify what they did not understand. Hipocrisy wise, "liberté, egalité et fraternité" may have been a nice slogan for the Revolution, but look how long it took for Terror to cast a dark shadow over all that supposed brotherhood.

Nietz,You are correct about classical liberalism. However that is not today's Democrat party. Today's conservative movement is more aligned with classical liberalism then Democrats. It is not a conservative position to expect the central government to bail out anyone.

One is not required to give their money to a mega-church. They can donate to any charity they choose, and most do. In the universe of Christians, very few belong to mega-churches.

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Books By Ted Rall:

Publication Date: March 13, 2018Order at Amazon!He thought his church career was drawing to a close. Then he was asked to take over a Catholic Church in crisis.Religiosity was in decline in the West. And the Catholic Church was in bigger trouble than any other institution you could think of. Losing parishioners, shrinking in power and prestige and discredited by corruption and sex…

Publication Date: December 12, 2017Order at Indiebound!
Order at Amazon!
Order at Barnes and Noble.Legendary infiltration journalist Harmon Leon is at it again, this time teaming up with ferocious political cartoonist Ted Rall answer the question most of America has been asking: "What the hell happened in 2016?" In their new book, Meet the Deplorables: Infiltrating Trump America, Leo…

Publication Date: July 26, 2016Order at Amazon!Everyone in America thought they knew Donald Trump: the real estate magnate, reality TV star and bigger than life personality lived his life in the tabloids. Little did they know - though he hinted at it repeatedly - that he planned to take American politics by storm. This graphic biography explores the little-known episodes that helped form…

Publication Date: January 19, 2016Order at Amazon!As a kid growing up in Brooklyn, Bernie Sanders was surrounded by grinding poverty that turned families against each other as they scrimped and saved to pay their bills.Bernie saw politics as his chance to give a decent life to everyone, not just those born to wealth or the lucky few who hit it big. But the Democratic Party and the co…

Publication Date: August 25, 2015Order at Amazon!As many as 1.4 million citizens with security clearance saw some or all of the same documents revealed by NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Why did he, and no one else, decide to step forward and take on the risks associated with becoming a whistleblower and then a fugitive? Rall's all-comic, full-color biography delves into Snowden's early l…

An independent account—in words and pictures—of America’s longest war from the beginning of the end to the end of the beginning.I traveled deep into Afghanistan—without embedding myself with U.S. soldiers, without insulating myself with flak jackets or armored SUVs—where no one else would (except, of course, Afghans).I made two trips, the first in the wake of 9/11, the next ten years later…

How did a charismatic young president elected in an atmosphere of optimism and expectation lead the United States to the brink of revolution? From a chance encounter in the early 1980s to the Democratic primaries of 2007-08, I was one of the first to size up Barack Obama as we know him now: conservative, risk-averse and tone deaf. In The Book of Obama I revisit the rapid rise and dizzying fall of…

A revolutionary manifesto for an America heading toward economic and political collapse. While others mourn the damage to the postmodern American capitalist system created by the recent global economic collapse, I see an opportunity. As millions of people lose their jobs and their homes as the economy collapses, they and millions more are opening their minds to the possibility of creating a radica…

This autobiographical graphic novel is a collaboration between me (my story, my writing) and Bluesman cartoonist Pablo G. Callejo. Travel with me to 1984, the year I lost everything. The place is New York City. In the space of a few months, I got expelled from Columbia University, fired from my job, arrested for drugs that weren't even mine, dumped by the girl I thought was The One, and evicted. I…

My fourth cartoon collection collects the work that made me America's most controversial cartoonist. Here are the classic "dirty dozen" cartoons that shocked and awed newspaper readers after 9/11: "Terror Widows" and its sequels, "FDNY 2011," the Pat Tillman series. There is also a lengthy introduction and commentary, which includes behind-the-scenes looks at the hate mail and death threats that p…

This is the book I wanted to write instead of To Afghanistan and Back — everything you ever wanted to know about Central Asia, without having had to attend grad school — but didn't have time. Five years later, I was able to release my Central Asia brain dump, a book anyone can read cold and come away understanding the importance of the region and why it's so interesting.
Comprising travelogue, po…

The final volume in the "Attitude" trilogy of alternative cartoonists is dedicated to the first wave of webcartoonists (cartoonists whose work is exclusively distributed online). Includes interviews, cartoons and personal ephemera about some of the most exciting artists to lay pen to paper — or stylus to Wacom. Here you'll find political cartoonists, humorists and dazzling graphic experiments, and…

"Generalissimo El Busho" is my chronicle, in essays and cartoons of the most polarizing presidency in modern American history, a tragicomic week-by-week dissection of the Bush Administration's follies and crimes.I've traveled to Third World trouble spots,so I recognize a dictator when he see one. Having seized power extraconstitutionally, Bush and his cabal of corrupt businessmen made it obvi…

My first all-prose book marks the beginning of the end of my belief that the Democratic Party was redeemable. Although I have come to believe that moving beyond the duopoly is necessary, liberals and progressives who have not followed me down the radical path will find much to like here.Declaring that there hasn't been a "real" Democrat in the White House since Lyndon Johnson, I decried the hi…

The second installment in the "Attitude" trilogy of interviews, cartoons and photos of America's top alternative cartoonists emphasizes cartoonists who deploy novel approaches to humor and the comics medium. Politics are still important, but take a back seat to social commentary in this collection.Includes the work of well-known artists like Aaron McGruder, who draws the daily comic strip "Boo…

The result of painstaking research and analysis, "Gas War" is the definitive behind-the scenes story of the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline (TAP) project. Conceived during the 1990s under Bill Clinton, the idea was for the United States to control the vast, newly-tapped Caspian Sea oil and gas reserves — which by some measures exceed those of Saudi Arabia — by building an oil and gas pipeline from Turk…

"The New Subversive Political Cartoonists" is the first volume in my '"Attitude" trilogy: the definitive record of the political cartooning scene that exploded in alternative weekly newspapers during the 1980s and 1990s. It features interviews of, cartoons by and photos and ephemera about 21 ground-breaking alternative political cartoonists who revolutionized the form. The Iowa City Gazette called…

The first book about the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan is also my first work of comics journalism, a mixed-media "instant book" comprising a 50-page "graphic novella," photos and essays.When bombs began falling on the Taliban in the fall of 2001, I traveled to northern Afghanistan, where I spent three weeks covering the U.S. bombing campaign for The Village Voice and KFI, a Los Angeles radio st…

A collection of 150 of my political cartoons published between 1995 and 2000. These pieces tackle the disappointments of the Clinton years, popular music, the dot-com boom to screwed-up relationships. I added commentary below most of the cartoons to place them into historical context.Search and Destroy includes cartoons from my transition from obscure alternative publications to big national m…

One of my personal favorites, but also my worst-selling book, this graphic novel is a homage to/parody of/updating of George Orwell's novel of totalitarian oppression 1984. I faithfully attempted to follow the structure of Orwell's classic with a new take on twisted take on dystopia. The threat to our freedom isn't some totalitarian tyrant — it's our own, lazy, easily-distracted selves, wallowing…

Ted Rall is the political cartoonist at ANewDomain.net, editor-in-chief of SkewedNews.net, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is the author of the biography "Trump," to be published in July 2016.